Turkey Selfies and Putting Things into Perspective

This week was not nearly as eventful as last week - thank goodness! Actually nothing crazy happened which is weird. We taught a lot of lessons! Our goal was 50 and we taught 50! We tried so so so hard during the week. We walked soooo MUCH! My body still isn’t used to walking so much so my calves cramp up all the time. A couple of days ago I felt a cramp coming on so I went over to a fence to go stretch it out and I was posing like Nacho Libre when he was wearing his recreational clothes - and then the person who lived in the house came out and saw me Nacho-ing on their fence and it was really embarassing. But we contacted her and she agreed to let us come back. Maybe she likes Nacho Libre too.

We dealt with borrachos (drunks) a lot this week. A branch member started drinking again a little while ago because he lost his parents and his wife in the same year. It’s really sad. We ran into him on the street and he bought us pan and soda and we talked for a while. He said he was on his way to buy drugs and prayed to God for help - and then he saw us. So he spent the drug money on snacks for us instead! It was way cool. Later, we saw him at a bar so we went and got him and told him to go home haha! And all the people at the bar yelled at us. We didn’t actually go inside, but we stood at the door. But he’s trying to stop drinking! And we’re going to help.

There was a change in the mission rules this week. All missionaries that are not Mexican citizens have to wear our green cards at all times. It’s on a bright blue lanyard and I have to wear it around my neck. And my green card is the worst picture of me ever! I took the picture in the MTC and I had to slick back my hair and I couldn’t smile, so I have to wear it under my clothes haha! So I don't look even weirder than I already do here. And so no one will see the awful picture.

Seriously we stick out so much. Everyone knows who we are haha. Randonly someone we don’t know will just yell “Hermanas!” and say hi. Usually we have no idea who it is.

Everyone and their mothers gave us fruit this week. We have an 11 kilo watermelon, about 5 mameys, 50 mangoes and like 75 guayas - I think that’s how you spell it - they’re like a mango but really small. Seriously, people just keep giving us fruit and we have to throw it away because it all lasts like 3 days. One guy gave us 40 mangoes in the span of 3 days.

Spanish is getting better! Even though some people still think I’m speaking English when I talk to them - and I’m like “No, I’m speaking Spanish” and they still don’t understand haha! But most people understand me. I tried to pray in English because the people we were teaching wanted to hear it. And it was ridiculously hard! I accidentally said “por favor” instead of please a few times! Talking about Gospel things in English is like impossible. Other things I am good with but gospel topics go straight to Spanish. Can’t wait to see how bad my English is in a couple months!

We had a lesson with a viejita who barely speaks Spanish - she speaks pure Maya. Hermana Romero knows a lot of Maya so they were talking and viejita just kept laughing at me because I didn’t know what was going on haha! And we were sitting outside and all 20 of her chickens were around us and her turkeys tried to eat my dress, so I was like swatting turkeys the whole time haha. We took a selfie with the turkeys.

It rained soooo much after the turkey lessons. In 20 minutes the water was a foot deep in some places. And I was actually a little bit cold!! I thank God every day that I’m not in Russia. If I’m cold in Yucatan.... Any way it was crazy. And no one would answer the door so we just walked around in the rain for a couple hours trying to find someone to teach. Wasn’t the best....

This is all so crazy and foreign. Many times throughout each day I ask myself where the heck I am. Yucatan is crazy but the people are so awesome, so giving, so loving, so welcoming. We have nice things in the US but we’re lacking nice people. I’ve learned a lot. There are so many things that take up so much time and energy that just are not important. Family, Heavenly Father and tortillas are the necessities here! Our lives are so busy we lose sight of the few things that actually matter! Take a step back and think about what really matters and focus on those things. The rest will seem less important!

Love,

Hermana Keeler

P.S. We went to Maní today with the Hermanas from Teekax. Both neighboring pueblos. We explored these caves! Don't worry we had a guide, but he was 9. It's like his job hahah I gave him 20 pesos for helping us. He showed us where to go and took all our photos it was perfect. We explored and then shopped a little bit. There is way cute stuff in Maní! I wish I had brought more money but I got a little purse. And we had these delicious snow cone things with banana and sweetened condensed milk. So it was a really good day!!!!